Turnover intentions in Jordanian Universities: The role of leadership behaviour, organizational commitment and organizational culture

Evidence gathered in relation to academic situation in Jordan is alarming. About 3000 Jordanian academics left their job during the last 25 years. During the last eight years, twenty percent of working academics were planning to search for opportunities in other, mostly foreign, universities. This particular percentage is expected to increase to more than 60% by the end of 2020. Although low turnover rates are beneficial by opening doors for new talents and new ideas, high rates are disruptive and negatively impacts the image of academic sector in Jordan. To address this issue, this research endeavors to investigate the impact of leadership behaviour, organizational commitment and organizational culture on turnover intentions in Jordanian higher educational Institutes. The participants in this study were limited to Jordanian academicians who work in any Jordanian University. A structured questionnaire was adopted from the past literature and a total number of 300 questionnaires were sent, out of which 270 were collected back. SmartPLS version 2 was used to run SEM to analyze the model. Results showed that the entire exogenous variables have significant impact on the endogenous variable. The implication of this study is that managers should recognize the behaviour of leadership in which the behaviour that able to motivate the level of employee commitment to organization and reduce employee turnover intention. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by IASE.